Textual Analysis - Watchmen

The superhero/thriller film Watchmen subverts the start of what we'd expect from possibly any film, as it doesn't use the traditional establishing shot that we are accustomed to. It starts off with a plain yellow screen, we start to hear a whistling noise that fades in, while the camera pulls-out. We discover that the yellow is actually the primary color of a "smiley face" badge, being worn by the an older male character in a worn dressing gown, and that the whistling noise is a kettle as he is making coffee. The whistling kettle could signify that the film takes place in the past, as most people nowadays use electric kettles that don't whistle, while the character uses an older model, that needs to be put on the hob in order to heat up. We can also connote his age from his graying hair, and mustache, which is in more of a "retro" style.

The pull-out finally stops on a medium shot of the character, in the dark kitchen, this could tell us that the character is trying to hide something, so he sticks to the shadows, another thing we could connote is that symbol of the yellow "smiley" badge in the dark, represents little happiness in the world, lost in a sea of misery. The camera then cuts to a close-up of his face, he's looking down at the coffee he is making, but his eyes are barely open, this could tell us he is tires, hence why he's making coffee, or that he is bored by the topic of conversation on a chat show, being diffused from the television, which is the likelihood of a nuclear war between Russia and the USA. We now have a strong sense of what time period the film may be set in, because the tensions between America and Russia, were particularly high during the "Cold War" era, which was post World War Two so from 1945, till the early 90's. We then cut to him mixing the coffee in his cup, this cutaway is good for match-on-action, but could also metaphorically represent that the chat show host is stirring things up on the show, by talking about and discussing, what we assume is a delicate situation.

When we cut back to the characters face, we see that his attention is fixed on something else, his eyes now focusing on something in his eye line. We then cut to an over the shoulder shot to find that he was looking at the television. There is then a short panning shot, that follows the character to the couch, this seem voyeuristic, it's as if someone is hiding in the shadows of the room, waiting for an opportunity to jump out. We then cut to a medium close up, of the character sat on the couch, we see his face is mostly dark, maybe representing his personality as being very dark/cynical personality.

When he picks up the remote to change channel, we cut to a TelePrompTer of the Presidents speech, we can tell this because the speech begins with,"People of the United States", which is a style often used by politicians to address their countries. The room is also well lit, with various people in suits, showing that it's a formal and important occasion. We then cut to a tracking long shot of the president speaking, it feels like it's from a point of view perspective, we are one of the officials come to see the president give his speech. This then cuts to a medium close up push-in shot, of the president issuing what seem to be a disguised threat, we see his expression is very serious, and the shadow gives him a menacing and evil look, but the push-in could represent the political pressure begging to get to him.

We then cut to a long push-in shot of the chat show that the character was watching earlier, the push-in could represent the viewers yearning to hear what the host and his guests have to say, the host appears to be looking straight at us, this also adds to the effect of the push-in as it invites us into the discussion, which is added on top off again by the seating plan in the room, with the host facing us, and the two guest facing each other to his left and right. While discussing the scientists prediction, we get to see and actual metaphorical clocks hand being moved towards the red marker in the number 12 position, representing doom, this is out of the ordinary as we don't expect scientists to use metaphors, but instead concrete evidence, plus we see that the scientists are pessimistic, which could tie back in with the pragmatics of the yellow "smiley" badge in the dark.